It should be both cheaper and more environmentally friendly. The only reason I see for a tiny house is if being independent and self-sufficient is important, but other than that it seems like just a worse version of an apartment?
Not sure if your referencing something here, but a tiny house means you won’t be disturbed by your neighbors stereo at 2 in the morn.
That only works if you put it on a normal sized lot, and if you are doing that, why have a tiny house?
You can’t hook your apartment up to your truck and move somewhere else. A friend of my wife has a tiny house. She moves every 3 to 6 months when she wants a new locale to live. She usually parks in trailer parks, the rent is much lower than an apartment.
If you own a tiny house on a piece of tiny or not property that you own then you can go out in your yard and dig a hole and nobody can tell you not to. That is known as freedom. While you’re doing that you can even hold your shovel up in the air and shout ‘Freedom!’ like Mel Gibson in Braveheart.
That’s asshole loud though. I was talking about the level of loud that would be reasonable any other place than an apartment.
Well, obviously, you don’t just build a single apartment but an entire apartment building, which requires the building is connected to plumbing, electrical and so forth. This is not cheap. Also, you need hallways, stairways and elevators. All of that is lots more expensive than just building a few tiny houses. I’m not even clear on how tiny houses are plumbed or get electricity.
They generally need a place with a water supply (ie, garden hose) and “mains” (ie, an electrical outlet).
Some have solar (“off-grid”) capabilities for electricity.
Some have standard residential toilets and will need sewer hookups. Some have composting toilets (and will not need sewer hookups).
If there is no plumbing or electricity then I’m not sure you can really call it a house maybe large shelter is a better term.
I’ve been under the impression that tiny homes were just meant to be houses but tiny so the benefits were you had separation from your neighbors but didn’t have to pay for space you we’re using. If its got less amenities then an airstream I guess the hard walls make it better than a tent.
There’s your answer.
My biggest gripe/fear of apartment living is dying, being injured, or run out of your home due to a fellow dweller’s stupidity or carelessness causing a fire. For right or wrong, I have this innate link of Apartment = firetrap.
Except if you’re getting water via a garden hose connection to someone’s house, electricity via an extension cord plugged into someone’s house and your tiny house is parked on someone’s property, you’re hardly “independent and self-sufficient”, are you?
In my city, tiny homes are one iteration of a form of urban infill, where homeowners can create auxiliary selling units (ADUs) to make money on their existing lot without having to subdivide the lot. They are typically hooked up to power, water, and sewer for this use.
When you live in an apartment, you’re at the mercy of the landlord/owner. If they decide to sell it, or raise the rent exorbitantly (both have happened to me a few times), you are SOL.
Ugh. That should be auxiliary dwelling units.
That’s a mobile home, not a house. The owners may be fooling themselves into thinking it is a house, but it’s not. Eventually they’ll end up in a trailer park or someplace that doesn’t care.
The eighth post upthread, from @DavidNRockies, described those things as necessary for a tiny house. How do you imagine you’re getting water, power and sewerage to a tiny house without relying on the kindness of strangers (or family)?
Some people like shoveling tiny sidewalks
You locate your house on land you own and connect to the utilities like everyone else. Tiny Houses may be a new trend but they aren’t really anything new. And if your tiny house is really a mobile home you can locate it in a trailer park and connect to utilities the way the rest of the trailer homes do.
Is it just a matter of aesthetics? The pictures I’ve seen of tiny houses, from both inside and outside, look a lot more like miniature houses, than they look like trailers. Do people like them just because they have the sort-of look-and-feel of a real house?